Here's my impressions of the 9750 machine after using it for a week. I hope that people considering this machine or a 9890 get some useful insights here. I upgraded from a 4750(actually it's a hypersonic AX7) so that's my basis for comparisson.
Build/Ergonomics
-Very sturdy, much more sturdy than the 4750. All plastic, paint in palm areas may fade over time.
-Very Durable, comfortable keyboard. (same as 4750)
-Palm rests get warm, needs a desk fan.
-Peripheral ports perfectly placed, no wire messes anymore.
-Touchpad, best I've ever used.
-Size- Width is normal for a 17" but height is very large.
-Not fit for car use- Too large. 4750 was just small enough to use in the car.
-Requires an inverter for car use. Too big for a car GPS.
-Noise from fans is suprisingly low. Much quieter than the 4750.
Final impression: Very good build, but will be too large for most people. The fact that it requires a desk fan for normal use is a little disappointing.
Sound
-Integrated sound quality is terrible.
-Tons of hiss making headphone use pretty unusable.
-External speakers sound 'tinny' and generally bad.
-Onboard speakers sound pretty good for a laptop.
-Audigy2 ZS Notebook is a decent upgrade, but it is a little crackley with desktop sounds. Overall sound quality is very good, games sound great. -There are probably better alternatives, tho.
Final impression: Absolutely terrible, you're going to be looking for something better immediately.
Video
-Destroys my desktop 6800GT, left me shocked.
-Most games can play well at 1920x1200 full detail with AA.
-Very good Overclocker (475/1.31)
-DVI connection and dual monitors work very will with my 17" 1280x1024 samsung flat panel. Still need to confim if hdtv res monitors will work.
-Significantly better than the (unusable) 4750 analog connector.
Final impression: Amazing. Super fast and is fully supported in linux.
Games I tried:
-Counter Strike Source: Runs perfect at 1920x1200 full detail and AA
-Halflife 2: Had to drop it down to 1680x1050 with no AA
-Civilization IV: Runs beautifully at 1920x1200 full detail
-Galactic Civilizations II: Runs beautifully at 1920x1200 4x AA full detail
-Farcry: Runs perfect at 1280x1024 full detail (max res)
-Call of Duty II: Runs great at 1920x1200 full detail
-Battlefield 2: Runs great at 1600x1200 full detail (max res)
-3dMark2005: 8042 with no optimized drivers or profiles, overclocked to 475/1.31
Final impression: Again, amazed. Playing games at 1920x1200 is a whole new experience.
Display
-Extremely crisp and sharp.
-Decent contrast, but a little dark.
-Not color correct, too blue. I simply adjusted the blue channel down brightness to 86% in the nvidia color controls. Colors look close to correct now.
-Not overly glossy, still usable in brightly lighted conditions.
-Still recommend an external monitors for design work.
-25ms response time is decieving, screen is very good for fps gaming. Better than the 4750's screen in that regard.
-Runs at a weird frequency of 61/62hz. May cause problems in some games/programs.
-No dead pixels!!!
Final impression: Very nice screen, although I wish it was a little brighter. Contrast could be improved upon too.
Performance
-Games performed amazingly well, see above impressions.
-DVDs rip fast with the dual layer pioneer burner(when was the last time you ripped at 8x in a slim dvd player?).
-Pata drives seem very quick, still need to benchmark against the sata ones.
-Processor is amazing, I don't think I need to get into it too much as there are countless resources covering every detail you could possibly want.
Final impression: Overall performance of this machine is simply phenominal.
Linux
I'm actually going to spend a little more time on this section as I hope everyone trys linux at some point. With Vista coming out soon, be prepared to deal with things like invasive DRM, trusted computing, less control over your data, security compromises and invasive virii from content providers. Open source software is the only solution to get around this crap.
So I gave the 32bit Ubuntu Breezy release a shot. I chose not to go with the 64bit version because some critical packages still haven't been compiled for 64bit. Setting them up on the 64bit distro is possible, but not worth it for the purpose of this review.
Install went smooth, for the most part. Unfortunately my audigy2 zs notebook pcmcia card crashes the hotplug system. So at this point it's unusable. I'm still looking for a fix. Some people have reported the exact same issues I'm having and others have it working perfectly fine (on different laptops of course). I'm hopeful that I'll get it working eventually.
<rant>
Note on hardware crashes...
This is not exactly Linux's fault. Many drivers need to be engineered by 3rd parties for no profit. Most of the time they have to work with incomplete documentation making their job very difficult. If hardware developers developed linux drivers themselves hardware issues would be few and far between.
</rant>
After booting into gnome I was very please to see that the install figured out the correct native resolution and monitor frequency. The screens on the 9750 run at an odd 61/62hz so I was very happy that x.org figured out the right settings.
The next thing that suprised me is that the CF reader automounted my card. Never had that work before. Unfortunately the sd reader had some issues with my 2gb card. The system sees the card, but thinks it's a 1gb card and will not auto mount it yet. I haven't tried mounting it manually yet, but I doubt it will work as the system thinks it's unpartitioned. Even after I partition the card it won't allow me to format. This may simply be a compatibility issue with my card; I really need to test another.
Nvidia video drivers installed quick and easy. No longer am I going to have to deal with terribly supported ati drivers. I think i'll finally be able to run maya with good results. Still need to test multiple monitors.
So the only issues I have with my linux install is no working audigy2, no sd card, and the webcam doesn't appear to be working. I need to look into loading better drivers for these devices.
So that's the bad news. The good news is that this machine support linux extremely well. SMP kernel works great and so does cpu scaling. I experienced no instabilities whatsoever.
Final impression: This machine supports linux better than any laptop i've tried up to this point. It's not perfect (webcam, sd card reader and pcmcia audigy come to mind) but it's nearly there.
Conclusion
So far this machine is everything I hoped it would be. It's fast, stable and capable of running two OS' on two different drives. It's definately big, so it's not going to travel much. Just like the 9890, these machines are the definition of a DTR. They fill that niche between the high-end laptop and high-end sff machines. I would honestly recommend this machine to very few people because there's a lot of things it can't do, due to lack of portability.
Fortunately it serves my purposes well. I highly recommend making a very informed decision before purchasing one of these machines because assuming this is a traditional laptop is a big mistake.
-BT
Build/Ergonomics
-Very sturdy, much more sturdy than the 4750. All plastic, paint in palm areas may fade over time.
-Very Durable, comfortable keyboard. (same as 4750)
-Palm rests get warm, needs a desk fan.
-Peripheral ports perfectly placed, no wire messes anymore.
-Touchpad, best I've ever used.
-Size- Width is normal for a 17" but height is very large.
-Not fit for car use- Too large. 4750 was just small enough to use in the car.
-Requires an inverter for car use. Too big for a car GPS.
-Noise from fans is suprisingly low. Much quieter than the 4750.
Final impression: Very good build, but will be too large for most people. The fact that it requires a desk fan for normal use is a little disappointing.
Sound
-Integrated sound quality is terrible.
-Tons of hiss making headphone use pretty unusable.
-External speakers sound 'tinny' and generally bad.
-Onboard speakers sound pretty good for a laptop.
-Audigy2 ZS Notebook is a decent upgrade, but it is a little crackley with desktop sounds. Overall sound quality is very good, games sound great. -There are probably better alternatives, tho.
Final impression: Absolutely terrible, you're going to be looking for something better immediately.
Video
-Destroys my desktop 6800GT, left me shocked.
-Most games can play well at 1920x1200 full detail with AA.
-Very good Overclocker (475/1.31)
-DVI connection and dual monitors work very will with my 17" 1280x1024 samsung flat panel. Still need to confim if hdtv res monitors will work.
-Significantly better than the (unusable) 4750 analog connector.
Final impression: Amazing. Super fast and is fully supported in linux.
Games I tried:
-Counter Strike Source: Runs perfect at 1920x1200 full detail and AA
-Halflife 2: Had to drop it down to 1680x1050 with no AA
-Civilization IV: Runs beautifully at 1920x1200 full detail
-Galactic Civilizations II: Runs beautifully at 1920x1200 4x AA full detail
-Farcry: Runs perfect at 1280x1024 full detail (max res)
-Call of Duty II: Runs great at 1920x1200 full detail
-Battlefield 2: Runs great at 1600x1200 full detail (max res)
-3dMark2005: 8042 with no optimized drivers or profiles, overclocked to 475/1.31
Final impression: Again, amazed. Playing games at 1920x1200 is a whole new experience.
Display
-Extremely crisp and sharp.
-Decent contrast, but a little dark.
-Not color correct, too blue. I simply adjusted the blue channel down brightness to 86% in the nvidia color controls. Colors look close to correct now.
-Not overly glossy, still usable in brightly lighted conditions.
-Still recommend an external monitors for design work.
-25ms response time is decieving, screen is very good for fps gaming. Better than the 4750's screen in that regard.
-Runs at a weird frequency of 61/62hz. May cause problems in some games/programs.
-No dead pixels!!!
Final impression: Very nice screen, although I wish it was a little brighter. Contrast could be improved upon too.
Performance
-Games performed amazingly well, see above impressions.
-DVDs rip fast with the dual layer pioneer burner(when was the last time you ripped at 8x in a slim dvd player?).
-Pata drives seem very quick, still need to benchmark against the sata ones.
-Processor is amazing, I don't think I need to get into it too much as there are countless resources covering every detail you could possibly want.
Final impression: Overall performance of this machine is simply phenominal.
Linux
I'm actually going to spend a little more time on this section as I hope everyone trys linux at some point. With Vista coming out soon, be prepared to deal with things like invasive DRM, trusted computing, less control over your data, security compromises and invasive virii from content providers. Open source software is the only solution to get around this crap.
So I gave the 32bit Ubuntu Breezy release a shot. I chose not to go with the 64bit version because some critical packages still haven't been compiled for 64bit. Setting them up on the 64bit distro is possible, but not worth it for the purpose of this review.
Install went smooth, for the most part. Unfortunately my audigy2 zs notebook pcmcia card crashes the hotplug system. So at this point it's unusable. I'm still looking for a fix. Some people have reported the exact same issues I'm having and others have it working perfectly fine (on different laptops of course). I'm hopeful that I'll get it working eventually.
<rant>
Note on hardware crashes...
This is not exactly Linux's fault. Many drivers need to be engineered by 3rd parties for no profit. Most of the time they have to work with incomplete documentation making their job very difficult. If hardware developers developed linux drivers themselves hardware issues would be few and far between.
</rant>
After booting into gnome I was very please to see that the install figured out the correct native resolution and monitor frequency. The screens on the 9750 run at an odd 61/62hz so I was very happy that x.org figured out the right settings.
The next thing that suprised me is that the CF reader automounted my card. Never had that work before. Unfortunately the sd reader had some issues with my 2gb card. The system sees the card, but thinks it's a 1gb card and will not auto mount it yet. I haven't tried mounting it manually yet, but I doubt it will work as the system thinks it's unpartitioned. Even after I partition the card it won't allow me to format. This may simply be a compatibility issue with my card; I really need to test another.
Nvidia video drivers installed quick and easy. No longer am I going to have to deal with terribly supported ati drivers. I think i'll finally be able to run maya with good results. Still need to test multiple monitors.
So the only issues I have with my linux install is no working audigy2, no sd card, and the webcam doesn't appear to be working. I need to look into loading better drivers for these devices.
So that's the bad news. The good news is that this machine support linux extremely well. SMP kernel works great and so does cpu scaling. I experienced no instabilities whatsoever.
Final impression: This machine supports linux better than any laptop i've tried up to this point. It's not perfect (webcam, sd card reader and pcmcia audigy come to mind) but it's nearly there.
Conclusion
So far this machine is everything I hoped it would be. It's fast, stable and capable of running two OS' on two different drives. It's definately big, so it's not going to travel much. Just like the 9890, these machines are the definition of a DTR. They fill that niche between the high-end laptop and high-end sff machines. I would honestly recommend this machine to very few people because there's a lot of things it can't do, due to lack of portability.
Fortunately it serves my purposes well. I highly recommend making a very informed decision before purchasing one of these machines because assuming this is a traditional laptop is a big mistake.
-BT
